Chapter 28
28
LOGAN
S ipping my coffee that has long since turned cold, I look over the files on my desk and then at my computer screen again. Things have been non-stop since I got called in last night, but I think I might finally have a breakthrough on Kelli’s case. When Josh set up our security system at the house, I put a failsafe program on it that would alert me and my team if anyone tried to break through the firewall and access it. At the time, I never dreamed it would be needed, but that was my home so I did it anyway.
It was triggered last night, and the only reasonable explanation why someone would try to get access to our security cameras is that Kelli’s stalker had finally found her. That thought both terrified and thrilled me. We were finally getting closer to catching this creep. I made an executive decision to not tell Brian and Josh about it yet because my team and I were still trying to trace where and how this person was trying to get access. Until I had something to bring to them, my ass was not leaving this office.
I felt like I was missing something, though. It didn’t make sense that she was suddenly found at our house when she hadn't left it once. There was more going on, and I was determined to figure it out. My fingers flipped through the photos in the file of every note and threat Kelli had gotten when the edge of one slipped, making a small slice through my finger. Seemed to be par for the course, since I got a nasty cardboard cut on my thumb yesterday moving those boxes around with Kelli.
Fuck . That was it.
Brian and Josh went to her storage unit Sunday, then suddenly her stalker found her. Coincidences like that don’t just happen. I yelled for Barry, my colleague who called me in last night, to join me as I pulled up her storage unit name online. Barry was your average cybersecurity nerd but with a deep voice, and he didn’t take shit from anyone. “Call this place for me and see what you can find out about Kelli’s storage unit. If anyone was hanging around there, if anyone rented one next to hers, if they have cameras, whatever you can find out. Threaten them if you have to, but I know this is how she was found. It has to be.”
He left my office right as my phone rang, Brian’s face popping up on my screen. “Hey man, I might not make it shopping. I think I have a lead on?—”
“Kelli’s gone. He took her. I need you to hack into the security cameras for this store RIGHT. FUCKING. NOW.” His voice was full of panic, voices yelling in the background. My heart started to pound, my hands shaking before I took a deep breath, pulling myself together. This is not the time to freak out. This is the time to save my girl.
“What store?” Brian tells me the store and location as my hands start to move. “Find the manager immediately. See if the cameras are real and are on, and find out if they are externally saved or not.” His heavy steps transfer through the phone as he runs for help. I hear him talking to someone as I try to also see what I can do on my end, but he will be able to get to them faster in person if they have cameras there.
“They have a security room with live cameras, but they are just saved to their cloud system. They’re taking me back there to look through them now.”
“Good, you are going to get in there way faster than me. Where’s Josh? Tell me exactly what happened.” He runs through the past ten minutes; how he let Josh and Kelli go to the bathroom while he stayed in the rug aisle with their stuff. When they didn’t come back after a few minutes, he started to worry ,so he went to check on them. He found Josh passed out in the bathroom, bleeding from a gash on the side of his head, and when he went to the women’s bathroom, Kelli was nowhere to be seen, but there was a needle cap on the ground.
Panic laces my bones as I try to tamp it down and stay level-headed. We need to keep our wits about us to find her quickly and get her back to us safely. We are going to need all three of us to do that. “How’s Josh now?”
“Major headache, possible concussion. He’s getting bandaged in an ambulance now. They guy clocked him good; he knew exactly where to hit.”
“Fuck.” My hand scrapes down my face as the agony of this whole situation floods through me. “Anything on the cameras yet?” I can hear muttering in the background, but can’t make it all out.
“There!” Brian shouts. “He has a hat pulled low, and he definitely drugged her. He is carrying her out of the bathroom. How the fuck did you guys not see that? How did he get out of the store with no one saying anything?” He yells at the man he is talking to. “Do you have cameras in the parking lot? Pull them up!”
More muttering makes its way through the phone before Brian yells again. “They don’t have cameras outside of the store, but he said the store next-door does. I’m running over there now.” His breathing comes through hard and fast, his feet pounding on pavement. “She’s been gone for twenty minutes at least now. He could be doing anything to her,” he says quietly.
The knot tightening in my throat is hard to talk around. “We are going to find her. She’s strong, she’ll be okay.” Josh’s low voice sounds not too far off, explaining what the medics said as Brian fills him in on where we are at in our plan to get her back.
I am trying to listen to them talk to the next store's security when Barry makes his way back into my office. “I got something.”
Putting my phone on speaker to still hear the guys, I nod to the chair across from my desk. “What did you get?”
“Owner said someone paid him a couple hundred to inform him of anyone coming or going to her unit. Said he sent the guy video footage on Sunday afternoon. His description was vague at best. Tallish, slight beard, unkempt, brown eyes, and brown hair. Could be just about anyone. He did give me the guy’s number that he left though. I guess your guy is getting sloppy because the phone is actually registered. Know a guy named Caleb Black?”
My vision tunnels, ears ringing as that name ping pongs through my head.
“What the fuck did he just say?!” Brian shouts through the phone.
Barry leans further forward, eyeing me to ensure it’s okay to repeat that before speaking into the phone. “The number belongs to a Caleb Black.”
You can hear a pin drop, both in my office and through the line. “B, focus. Go check those cameras right now. I will do everything to find him on my end. Make sure this is right. Verify it’s him on those cameras. Now.” Josh’s voice is soft and I know he is talking him through this, too. The good news is we know Caleb. We know where he excels and where his weaknesses are. The bad news is the same - we know Caleb. He’s always been a little more likely to make questionable decisions, the first one to use fists instead of words.
Turning to Barry, I start making a plan. “I’m going to try to ping his phone, get me that number. I need you to look up everything you can on him. Where he lives, what he drives, places he frequents. Anything at all, and I need it now.”
He is gone and back in thirty seconds, dropping the number on my desk. “I’m on it.” When he heads back to his desk, I take thirty seconds to breathe. Caleb took our girl. She’s gone. Red starts creeping into my vision, my hands wrap around my coffee mug and throw it against the wall, causing coffee and ceramic to shatter onto the wall and floor.
We promised her we would keep her safe. We told her we loved her and promised the possibility of a future if she wanted it. She was ours, and we let him take her. I needed her back. We taught her how to protect herself, she was smart, she was a fighter. She would stay safe until we got to her. Brian never gave her enough credit, never seeing the strength in her. She would be okay; she had to be.
I started the search on tracing Caleb’s phone, praying it was quick and really his phone. “How’s it going? Was it him?” I ask into the phone on my desk.
“They are rewinding the cameras now.” Josh’s voice is just as strained as mine. “There!” Brian shouts from next to him.
“Fuck,” I hear Josh mutter followed by silence. “It’s him.”
“Are you sure?”
Brian must take the phone back as he comes through again. “Yes, after he dumped her into the back of his car, he took his hat off for a moment to fix his hair. He looks like shit, but I would know his face anywhere. Red Toyota Camry license plate 3593MM.”
I still can’t believe this whole time it was Caleb and we had no idea, though it makes sense. His ability to remain untraceable, his knowledge of how to remain hidden in plain sight, how not to get caught. “His phone was last used in our neighborhood last night, motherfucker. It was in the house for sale down the road. He has it turned off now, so I can’t trace it again until it’s used. Barry is looking up everything we can get on him. What’s our next move?”
“We’re going home to load up. We packed those kits with this nightmare in mind. Find out what you can. We will be there in about an hour.” Brian takes a shaky breath, his voice cracking. “We’re getting her back, right? We have to.”
“Yeah, B. We’re getting her back.” Hanging up, I go to see what Barry has found so far.
“I’ve got a truck, a home, and an apartment all in his name so far. Still looking,” Barry says over his computer before I could even drop into the chair beside him. “Wrote down the addresses and license plate number.”
“I need you to look up another license plate. He was driving a red Toyota Camry when he took Kelli.” I hand over the license plate number while looking through the information Barry has written down. “How far away are his house and apartment from here?”
“His house is about an hour from here. I looked at the map; it’s a pretty secluded location. If I were to take someone that I was hiding, it would be there.” He was still busy typing as I typed out that address to the guys. “The Camry is registered to an Ashley Hanson.”
“Bastard, of course he has her old car. Any possibility you can track it?”
“No, it’s a pretty old car, there’s no lo-jack on it. I’m going to keep looking up everything I can.” I squeezed his shoulder in thanks and went back to my desk to look up his house. It had to be the place. There was no way that he would risk taking her back to his apartment in Boston. I felt it in my gut; my girl was there at his house.
I couldn’t wait for the guys, he already had an hour head start on us. I grabbed my keys, wallet, and gun from the small safe in my office. Brian never let us forget how alone Kelli has been most of her life. How alone she felt in the world most of the time. How much she insisted that she could take care of herself regardless. She wasn’t alone anymore; she had us. I let Barry know I was leaving and rushed to my car, calling the guys again.
“Is that his house?” Josh asks by way of answering.
“Yeah, I am heading there now. It’s a secluded location about an hour from here. I will check it out. You guys can meet me there.”
“Fuck no! You are not going without us. If you think she’s there, we’re all going. Brian, turn around,” Josh demands.
“What if she’s not there? We shouldn’t all go. It would be better to have our gear, too, since we don’t know what we’re up against,” I argue.
“Again, fuck that. We can take him on, hands behind our backs. Call Barry and have him send some guys out to the house in our neighborhood where you last pinged his phone just to make sure he didn’t go back there. We are already turned around and heading towards you. We are only ten minutes behind. Do not do anything stupid and wait for us.”
“No promises. He has our girl.”
Josh lets out a heavy sigh. “Yeah, okay. Be careful, I’ll keep you updated on our location.” He hung up right as I reached the highway heading south, flooring it. We’re coming, baby girl, just hang on.